Hart - Manga for the beginner shoujo: everything you need to start drawing the most popular style of Japanese comics

Contributing Artists:
Christopher Hart
Rhea Silvan
Tabby Kink
Roberta Pares
Laichro
Adetyar Rakhman
Tina Francisco
Erica Awano

Front cover design by and interior design adapted by woolypear

Copyright 2010 by Cartoon Craft, L.L.C.

All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Watson-Guptill Publications an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group a division of Random House, Inc., New ork
www.crownpublishing.com
www.watsonguptill.com

WATSON-GUPTILL is a registered trademark and the WG and Horse designs are trademarks of Random House, Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Hart, Christopher.
Manga for the beginner shoujo : everything you need to start drawing the most popular style of Japanese comics / Christopher Hart. 1st ed.
p. cm.
Includes index.
eISBN: 978-0-8230-0838-4
1. Comic books, strips, etc.JapanTechnique. 2. CartooningTechnique.
3. Comic strip characters. I. Title.
NC1764.5.J3H369285 2010
741.51dc22
2009050997

v3.1

If you can dream it, you can be it.

CHRISTOPHER HART

HERES A SPECIAL BOOK for those interested in drawing the shoujo (pronounced show-joe) style of manga. Shoujo is the style of manga thats aimed at teenage girls but that also has garnered a strong male following. Also spelled shojo, its the most popular style of manga in the known universeand this is the first book specifically designed to teach beginners how to draw it. Maybe youve had some experience with other forms of art but your manga needs a little help. Or maybe youve been sort of faking your manga and want to kick it up to the next level. Either way, this book is designed for you.

Manga for the Beginner Shoujo adds additional steps to the normal step-by-step format to make sure you can follow the tutorials at every point along the way. It also features a comprehensive amount of art principles to lay a foundation for your manga as you continue through this book and beyond. Your favorite characters are included, from magical girls to handsome teen boys to cat-girls, Goth boys, demon gals, and more. Youll also learn the secrets of how to draw the wildly popular elegant, older-male teenage shoujo character. This famous manga figure from Japan is experiencing an unprecedented wave of popularity in graphic novels in America today, and hes featured here in an in-depth chapter complete with lots of step-by-step breakdowns and special drawing hints.

In other words, youll be learning the basics on the most outrageously cool characters in shoujo. No boring mannequins for you to copy here. This is the real deal: authentic manga, drawn in the latest style Tokyo has to offer. Why settle for anything less?

The text is also particularly helpful to beginning artists, as it explains the lessons in a breezy manner. Extra tips and insights are offered on everything from coloring to character development. This book has got your back every step of the way. You may start off as an otaku (a manga fan), but youll end up a mangaka (a manga artist)!

THE SHOUJO LOOK REQUIRES special elements and proportions: big, glistening eyes; a small mouth; and a tiny nose. Often, I see beginners taking great care to draw elaborate eyes. They intuitively understand what a big role this feature plays in a characters design. But what they dont always realize is that for a character to have big eyes, it also has to have a huge forehead. To counterbalance this, the character has a small mouth area. This is the very definition of the cute head type and is one of the reasons they shoujo head is so appealing. So remember: No feature exists all by itself. It must coexist within a framework that accommodates its unique size and shape.

What is the .)

Well concentrate on the female characters for now, because theyre the stars of the genre (and also the main audience). Age range is important: As the age range of the characters changes, the genre changes. So its important to keep your shoujo girls between ages twelve and seventeen. If you go lower or higher than that, you start to enter into genres other than shoujo, as youll see here.

CHIBI
Ages 58

KODOMO
Ages 811

SHOUJO
Ages 1217

BISHOUJO
Ages 1821

Because shoujo is famous for its glamorous eyes, well spend a little extra time on this feature.

The first column shows how a beginner might draw manga eyes. Theyre quite plain and all starkly black and white. The eyes in the second column are done like a professional manga artist would draw shoujo eyes: with a lighter touch and feathered to give a softer, glistening look. The lashes, too, are thicker and more profuse. Try copying some of these. You dont have to get them perfect the first time. It takes a few tries. Dont be too critical of yourself. Remember, its just the start of the book.